Exploring the School of Music

In the few months I have spent at Westminster I have explored most of our small campus and discovered most of the issues with inaccessibility as a wheelchair user. One place I hadn’t visited was the School of Music so I decided to see how a music major in a wheelchair would get around.

The path of least resistance to enter the building was to go down a flight of stairs. For part of it, my friends had to carry me. At another point I had to drag my cumbersome wheelchair up and down a flight of stairs.

When I got into the building a lot of the rooms were very difficult to maneuver throughout and I wasn’t able to reach most of the lockers where the students keep their instruments. I ran into multiple flights of stairs that I couldn’t get up and down, even with help.

By the end of my visit I was frustrated. I personally don’t need to go to the School of music so the complete inaccessibility of the place doesn’t impact me greatly. However, if another student came to Westminster and wanted to study music, they would have an extremely difficult time getting anywhere. In order to allow more students to come to Westminster, the School of Music should be more accessible.